Vol. 31 number 3 March 2014 The newsletter of the Ottawa PC Users' Group Calendar OPCUG General Meeting National Museum of Science and Technology 1867 St. Laurent Blvd. Second (*first) Wednesday of each month, 7:30pm 2014: Jan 8, Feb 12, Mar 12, Apr 9, May 14, Jun 11 Beginner SIG After the OPCUG General Meeting, at the Museum. Linux SIG After the OPCUG General Meeting, at the Museum. Beer BOF (Wing SIG East), after all the SIGs, at 10 p.m. Liam Maguire's, 1705 St. Laurent Blvd. at Innes Rd. Please note that unless otherwise noted, SIGs meet at 9:00 p.m. (immediately following the OPCUG General Meeting). ____________________________ Coming Up... Wednesday, March 12, 2014 Topic: Raspberry Pi Speaker: Don Isaacs Review of the various operating system options for the PI, with the advantages and disadvantages of the various flavours and the some tips and suggestions on the PI setup. As well we can discuss some the applications that I have installed. Also, we will have a short presentation from "Vas" of BuyaPi.ca to talk about the various Raspberry Pi options. April 9: Colour Management by David Andrews (to be confirmed) May 14: GIS by Jason Barney, City of Ottawa and Robert Giggey, City’s Open Data initiative and Apps4Ottawa program. June 11: Pizza Night + "Web Comics" by Mark Shainblum, creator of Northguard ____________________________ March Raffle For the March raffle, we have a really special prize – a 7” Android tablet computer! The UbiSlate 7Ci Android tablet runs Android 4.2.2 (Jelly Bean) and weighs only 320 grams. It boasts a 7" TFT touchscreen, a 1.0 Ghz Cortex A8 processor with HD video co-processor, 512MB memory and 4GB internal storage (expandable with a micro-SD card to 32GB). Equipped with WLAN WiFi 802.11b/g/n connectivity, miniUSB, built-in microphone, headphone jack, built-in speaker and a front-facing camera. The UbiSlate 7Ci will meet the average user's needs in mobile connectivity. For details see http://ubislate.ca/product.php?prodid=1 Tickets are, as always, a good deal at $1 for one, a great deal at $2 for three or the unbelievable bargain of $5 for ten. Don’t miss out on your chance to win this terrific raffle prize! ____________________________ February Prize Winner Vern Colford was the winner of the raffle at our February meeting. Vern is now the proud owner of a new Belkin wireless keyboard. ____________________________ Review of 2013 Financial Records by Richard Aylesworth I reviewed the Treasurer's financial records for the year 2013, and found them to be in good shape. The dollar amounts agree with those in the Treasurer's financial report submitted to the board in February. There were only minor problems with reporting of some year-end transactions. These were dealt with to my satisfaction by the Treasurer. Thanks to Alan German for a job well done. Richard Aylesworth, February 2014 The Board of Directors would like to thank Richard for his thorough review of the club's accounts. ____________________________ 2013 Ottawa Food Bank Drive Dear Friends at OPCUG, This season, Ottawa workplaces came together once again to help Drive Away Hunger. This year, 149,000 pounds of food and over $87,000 was donated to the Ottawa Food Bank through the Holiday Food Drive. Your donation really will make a difference. It will help the Ottawa Food Bank distribute much-needed food items well into the cold winter months. Check out some pictures and our full Holiday Food Drive Wrap Up on our website here . Did you know that 45,000 people benefit from the Ottawa Food Bank's programs each month, and 37% of them are children? With extraordinary community support, we are able to ship 14 tons of food each and every working day from our Michael Street warehouse. If you wish to see where your donation goes and have a tour of our warehouse, I can certainly schedule a tour. Only with your support can we continue to come to the aid of those in need. Thank you for your commitment to helping fight community hunger! Thank You! Maggie Rose Event Coordinator, Ottawa Food Bank 1317 Michael Street Ottawa, ON K1B 3M9 ____________________________ 2013 Silent Auction At its Dec 11, 2013 meeting, the OPCUG had its second highly successful silent auction with 57 items for bid and collecting $504 plus a couple of bags full of non-perishable food all donated to the Ottawa Food Bank, just in time for the holiday season. The event was really a group effort including Chris Taylor getting 10 books from O'Reilly and 7 books from Microsoft MVP program plus announcing the event, Alan German doing the accounting and the slide show, Gail Eagen helping with the accounting, Brigitte Lord promoting the event in the newsletter and the OPCUG's web site, Jocelyn Doire creating the auction web page and organizing the event, Cédric St-Amour of the Canada Science and Technology Museum and his team in setting up the meeting room and finally, and certainly not least, all the donors of the food and the items for the silent auction. ____________________________ Annual General Meeting 2014 The Annual General Meeting was held on February 12, 2014. 1. Election Results - Chris Taylor, President, announced that they were exactly nine nominations and thus the Board was acclaimed. The newly elected Board was announced. Board Members for 2014/15 were: Jocelyn Doire Jeff Dubois Gail Eagen Alan German Bob Gowan Wayne Houston Brigitte Lord Chris Taylor Bob Walker Chris thanked Bob Herres for once again carrying out the duties of Election Chair. 2. President’s Report - Chris said the President's Report would be published in the February Newsletter. 3. Treasurer’s Report - The Treasurer's Report for the calendar year 2013 was prepared by Alan German and published in the February 2014 Newsletter. Chris Taylor presented the report at the meeting. He reported that the OPCUG is in good financial shape in fiscal year 2013 however expenses exceeding revenue by $694.59 and with outstanding cheques the deficit would be $1,504.59. The Silent Auction held in December for the Ottawa Food Bank raised $504 including cash donations. Chris gave special thanks to Jocelyn Doire, Jeff Dubois, Alan German and others for coordinating the event and to all contributors. The office expenses were down this year. However, the Pub expenditures were up because a new computer was purchased and Pizza-Q expenses were up because more pizzas were eaten. Membership, and thus membership income, was down. The expenses relating to the newsletter at $2300 represent almost 50% of the total annual expenditures. Chris pointed out Alan’s concern about the potential postal rates by 35% in 2014. Chris encouraged members to opt for an electronic version (PDF or TXT) to be delivered by electronic mail or to pick up the paper copy at the meeting. Chris thanked Richard Aylesworth for scrutinizing the Treasurer's financial records in 2013 stating his recommendations had been considered and implemented by the Board.. 4. Secretary’s Report - Chris said the Secretary's Report would be published in the Newsletter. 5. Chris thanked: 1. Jocelyn Doire for the electronic distribution of the Newsletter and for maintaining the history pages on the web site. 2. Mark Cayer for his work on membership and mailing the Newsletter. 3. Bert Schopf for offering his office space for OPCUG Board meetings. 6. Questions and Comments - Chris opened the floor to questions or comments: 1. There were several members who contributed to a discussion of the future of the Newsletter including asking why the OPCUG did not stop producing a hard copy of the Newsletter. One suggested a surcharge. One attendee reported that membership had reduced in another club he was in when they cut out the paper copy of their newsletter. Answer: Chris reported that the Board had discussed options for the future of the Newsletter including cancelling the paper copy. The Board had decided not to cancel at this time considering that it was an important benefit of membership for many members. The Board had agreed to encourage members to switch to electronic or pick up a hard copy at the meeting. The Board had also discussed reducing circulation of paper copies to libraries. 2. A member asked how the OPUCG had accumulated the assets of over $20,000 and where were they held. Answer: Chris responded that the financial assets had been accumulated from membership and other club revenue over the many years of the club’s existence and were held in a savings account with ING. He stated that membership had been higher in the past. Jocelyn Doire suggested that members could look at the history page on the OPCUG site for more information. 3. A member asked about Board positions. Answer: Chris reported that the new Board would be selecting positions at the next Board meeting. 4. Chris encouraged members to contribute suggestions for session topics or speakers. 5. Bob Gowan presented a certificate and gift to Morris Turpin in appreciation of his fourteen (14) years of service on the OPCUG Board. Morris was responsible for publicity and for selling raffle tickets (which make up about 40% of the club revenue.) 6. The Meeting was adjourned at 7:46 PM. Submitted by Gail Eagen, Secretary, OPCUG ____________________________ Product Review Easus Todo Backup Free 6.5 by Chris Taylor When it comes to backing up my computers, I am a fan of “image” backups. For more info, see my article Backing it up in the March, 2013 issue of the newsletter (http://opcug.ca/public/Articles/1303.pdf) I have been an Acronis True Image user for many years and am happy with the program and its full features. But I don’t always need full features. For example, I started using a Microsoft Surface Pro 2 for my Ottawa Public Library presentations. I don’t have any real amount of unique data on the tablet, so I don’t need a backup program with tons of features. All I really want is disaster recovery – the ability to quickly get back to a working operating system with a couple of dozen programs. A full image backup every month or two is sufficient for that. Alan German wrote a review of the free version of Macrium Reflect (http://opcug.ca/public/Articles/1110.pdf) and I considered using it. One of the big limitations of the free version of Macrium Reflect is that it cannot do incremental images, but I don’t need that feature on my tablet. Before I got around to installing Macrium Reflect, I happened across EaseUS Todo Backup Free. One thing that caught my eye – Todo Backup Free can do incremental images! Even though I didn’t need it for my tablet backup, I figured it was worth trying. I thought if I liked it, it might be a candidate to replace Acronis True Image on my desktop computer. The 127MB download went smoothly. As with many free programs, during the installation, you are offered some programs from other vendors, which you can accept or decline. The Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 is required. If you don’t already have it, you will be prompted to install it. The user interface is quite clean and simple. For a complete backup, you select the disks/partitions you want to back up, choose a destination location & file name and click on the Proceed button. My Surface has a 64GB SSD with 5 partitions. There is the C drive sized at 53GB. The remaining partitions are for recovery and … who knows? As well, I have a 32GB micro-SD card in the system. I selected the SSD and the SD card which automatically selected all partitions. I plugged an external drive into the USB port and pointed there for the backup file. After 14 minutes, my first backup, totalling 33GB, was done. The backup file was just under 25GB. There are lots of options for tweaking the way the program operates. You can do full or incremental backups, select from multiple levels of compression, password-protect the backup, split backup files into parts (useful if you want to store the backup files on optical media), send email notifications after backup, run commands before and after backup, schedule backup operations, and set the priority for the backup process. Todo Backup has a Clone operation, which simply copies all files from a disk or partition to another disk. This can be useful if you are upgrading to a larger disk drive. If you don’t want to image an entire disk or partition, you can choose File Backup and select folders, files, and libraries. Nobody runs a backup solely to backup. What is important is the ability to perform a recovery. A common recovery task is for individual files or folders that have been deleted or corrupted. To do this kind of recovery, click on Recovery in the main window and select File Recovery. Select the backup file you want and then browse to select the files or folders for recovery. You can choose to restore the files to the original location or a different location. Another way of recovering files is to mount a backup file, which will assign a drive letter to the backup and then you can access the files within the backup with any file manager you want. You can also simply double-click on a backup file and it will open an Explorer window which looks just like a normal drive (but read-only). You can then just use normal file operations to copy files or folders from the backup to any location you want. All file and folder recovery tests I ran worked flawlessly. I need an image backup for my Surface Pro 2 tablet so I can recover the operating system and applications in the event of a disaster, rather than individual file recovery. In order to fully test a backup procedure, you really need to actually do a recovery. I am not about to try an actual recovery on my Surface tablet, but I do know I have to be prepared. Within the Tools section of Todo Backup, you can create bootable recovery media. In the event that Windows can’t boot, you use this to boot the computer and perform the recovery. As with most backup programs, Todo Backup allows you to create either Linux-based or Windows PE-based recovery media. The free versions of Todo can’t create Windows PE-based recovery media so I chose the Linux version and opted for a flash drive. And then my problems started. Once the bootable flash drive was created, I could not get my tablet to boot from it. I tried a bootable DVD with a USB DVD drive and it didn’t work either. I found an incomplete article published by Microsoft at http://preview.tinyurl.com/pjfs2ul that provided part of the answer. In addition to the instructions there, I found I had to also disable secure boot in UEFI. But even then, I could not get the Surface Pro 2 to boot from the flash drive or DVD. Google searches turned up others with the same problem. Some proposed solutions, quite obviously from people who never actually tried it, regurgitated the Microsoft instructions that didn’t work. Other suggestions, from people who said worked they for them, didn’t work for me. I really don’t know if the problem I’m having stems from the Surface Pro 2, the UEFI based Secure Boot built into every Intel Core-i CPU, Windows 8, or something else. Really too bad, because I do like Todo Backup Free. It has a nice feature set and the parts I could get to work, worked well. Make sure, whatever backup solution you choose, that it will allow you to recover. Maybe I will try Macrium Reflect Free. Bottom Line: Program: EaseUS Todo Backup Free System requirements: Windows XP/Vista/7/8, 1GB RAM (2GB for Windows 8/8.1), 1GB disk space Supported file systems: FAT12/16/32 and NTFS. Other file systems can be backed up in sector-by-sector mode. Maximum disk size supported is 4TB. Price: Free for home use Web site: http://www.todo-backup.com/ ____________________________ Product Review Batch File Renaming Alan German I am amazed at how often I can find a piece of free software to accomplish precisely the task I wish – seemingly no matter how obscure the requirements. Suppose, for example, I wanted to remove all the hyphens from the names of multiple files and, at the same time, standardize the file names to use just the first eight characters. No doubt, that with sufficient time and effort, I could write some sort of script to undertake this task, but is there an existing utility program that can do the job? As it happens, I did need precisely this capability – with the additional requirement to have the renaming process work for both file and folder names. I tried a number of batch file renaming programs before I found Bulk Rename Utility which could handle my specific tasks – and much more! Running the program produces a main screen with a seemingly bewildering number of choices. However, the basic operation is fairly simple once you take the trouble to scan through the individual components. The file directory tree allows selection of a folder, at which point the names of the files inside the folder are displayed in the large window. The non-intuitive part of the process is that you need to select one, or more, or all of the files within this window on which the renaming operations are to be conducted. In the example shown in the screenshot, I have selected all four files in the \agtemp2 folder. In the “Replace (3)” section of the window I have opted to replace the hyphen character with nothing. And, in the “Remove (5)” section, I have chosen to remove characters in the file name “From” 9 “to” 23. As can be seen in the preview of the new file names (shown in green) this removes all the hyphens and retains the first eight characters of the file names, while leaving the file extensions unchanged. The really useful part of this process is that, with the files selected, the preview is dynamic so you can see what effect your particular renaming selections will have. Pressing the “Rename” button in the lower-right corner of the window brings up a warning message to double check that the selections are correct. Continue and the files are renamed – there is no undo feature! The program comes with an extensive, 41-page manual, and an offer of on-line support by E-mail. However, once you get over the shock of having so many renaming options available, a little study will allow you to readily tailor the program’s operation to your specific purposes. Note that, in addition to removing characters, Bulk Rename Utility will allow you to add text, numbers and dates to file names and let you change the case, And, yes, it does rename multiple folders in the same manner as files. Bottom Line Bulk Rename Utility (Freeware) Jim Willsher Version 2.7.1.2 http://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/ ____________________________ OPCUG Free Software Guide – Part 46 Compiled by Alan German and Micheline Johnson This guide features an annotated list of free computer programs. The software mentioned has not been reviewed (except where noted) nor have any tests necessarily been conducted. Consequently, no guarantees are provided that the individual programs will perform as described. Rather the list of available software is provided for the information of our members who may find one or more of the programs useful. Startup Delayer Optimize your computer's startup process by delaying applications from starting up when you log into your computer. Your computer will becomes usable much faster. Startup Delayer will start launching your delayed applications when your machine is less busy. Current Release: Version 3.0 build 333 Web Site: http://preview.tinyurl.com/mrjbad2 Classic 80's Arcade Games Play classic arcade games from the eighties. These are the video games you played back then! Now, once again, play original Atari, Nintendo, Intellivision, Colecovision and arcade games on-line. Best of all, no tokens are required to play these video games! Web Site: http://www.free80sarcade.com/ Puran Defrag This simple-to-use utility will defrag the files on your hard disk and optimize your system by moving some frequently used files, and all directories, to faster disk areas. This process boosts your computer's performance, and reduces wear and tear on your hard disk, so increasing its life span. Current Release: Version 7.6 Web Site: http://preview.tinyurl.com/8xguoaq PWGen Use this open-source utility to generate cryptographically-strong passwords, pass-phrases and key-files, with lots of options to customize passwords to your specific needs. Current Release: Version 2.2.1 Web Site: http://pwgen-win.sourceforge.net/ ZipItFree A free alternative to WinZip with support for more than 15 compression formats. Windows integration gives you one-click capability for functions like Extract Here, Zip and E-mail. ZipItFree is free to everyone, including both home and business users. Web Site: http://www.zipitfree.com/ RoboSizer Attach your images to an E-mail message or upload them to the web, and RoboSizer will automatically optimize them for you! There is nothing to configure, no additional steps to take - just send your images like you always do and RoboSizer will do the rest! Current Release: Version 1.0.9.3 Web Site: http://www.robosizer.com/ MediaMxkey This media manager catalogues both audio and video files, automatically adjusts volume levels, has a Jukebox/party mode, CD/DVD ripper/burner, podcast manager, and built-in file conversion. It supports hundreds of devices including iPhones, iPods, and Android units. Current Release: Version 4.0.7 Web Site: http://www.mediamxkey.com/ CamStudio CamStudio is able to record all screen and audio activity on your computer and create industry-standard AVI video files and using its built-in SWF Producer can turn those AVIs into lean, mean, Streaming Flash videos (SWFs) Current Release: Version 2.7 Web Site: http://camstudio.org/ Jarte A slim word processor that includes only the features likely to be needed by real people. Current Release: Version 5.0 Web Site: http://www.jarte.com/ ____________________________ OTTAWA PC NEWS Ottawa PC News is the newsletter of the Ottawa PC Users' Group (OPCUG), and is published monthly except in July and August. The opinions expressed in this newsletter may not necessarily represent the views of the club or its members. Member participation is encouraged! If you would like to contribute an article to Ottawa PC News, please submit it to the newsletter editor (contact info below). Deadline for submissions is three Saturdays before the General Meeting. Group meetings OPCUG normally meets on the second Wednesday in the month, except in July and August, at the National Museum of Science and Technology, 1867 St. Laurent Blvd, Ottawa. Meetings are 7:30-9:00 p.m. and Special Interest Groups go until 10 p.m. Fees: OPCUG annual membership: $25 per year. Mailing address: 3 Thatcher St., Nepean, Ontario, K2G 1S6 Web address: http://opcug.ca/ Bulletin Board - PUB II (BBS): http://opcug.ca/default.htm Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/opcug President and System Administrator: Chris Taylor, chris.taylor@@opcug.ca, 613 727-5453 Meeting Coordinator: (Mr.) Jocelyn Doire, Jocelyn.Doire@@opcug.ca Treasurer: Alan German, alan.german@@opcug.ca Secretary: Gail Eagen, gail.Eagen@@opcug.ca Membership Chairman: Mark Cayer, Mark.Cayer@@opcug.ca, 613 823-0354 Newsletter: Brigitte Lord, Brigittelord@@opcug.ca Email: (Mr.) Jocelyn Doire, Jocelyn.Doire@@opcug.ca Public Relations: Morris Turpin, PR@@opcug.ca, 613 729-6955 Facilities: Bob Walker, 613 489-2084 Webmaster: Brigitte Lord, opcug-webmaster2@@opcug.ca Privacy Director: Wayne Houston, privacy2@@opcug.ca Special Events Coordinator: Bob Gowan, bob.gowan@@opcug.ca Beginners' SIG Coordinator: Chris Taylor, chris.taylor@@opcug.ca, 613 727-5453 Linux / Open-Source software SIG: (vacant) Note: We added an extra "@@" to the emails to reduce spam. Parking: Ample parking is available for a flat fee of 3$ after 5pm, paid in advance. Payment methods includes coins, VISA, and MasterCard, and the proof of payment must be left in the car and be visible in the front windshield. We will refund the parking fee for our speakers. For those who don't mind a couple of minutes easy stroll, there is free parking just before the museum along Gladwin Crescent. (c) OPCUG 2014. Reprints permission is granted* to non-profit organizations, provided credits is given to the author and The Ottawa PC News. OPCUG request a copy of the newsletter in which reprints appear. *Permission is granted only for articles written by OPCUG members, and not copyrighted by the author. ____________________________ Newsletter by email: To receive the newsletter by e-mail, send a message to listserve@@opcug.ca with the plain text "subscribe NewsletterTXT" or "subscribe NewsletterPDF" (without quotes) in the body of the message. No subject line is required. To cancel e-mailing, send a message to listserve@@opcug.ca with the plain text "unsubscribe NewsletterTXT" or "unsubscribe NewsletterPDF" (without quotes). To change your e-mail address, cancel using the old e-mail address and re-subscribe using your new e-mail address. Cancelling the Paper Newsletter: You can help the environment and save us some costs by sending an email to Mark.Cayer@@opcug.ca asking to cancel the delivery of the paper version of the newsletter (or ask him in person - Mark is usually at the back of the auditorium at General Meetings). Announcements Mailing List: To subscribe to the Announcements List send an email to listserve@@opcug.ca, leave the subject blank and in the body of the message put "subscribe announcements" (without the quotes). Within a couple of minutes you will receive a confirmation message from the list server. OPCUG clock/calendar/calculator and mug: Check out the clock/calendar/calculator and thermal coffee mug sporting our club logo at the back of the auditorium at General Meetings! OPCUG insulated mugs are $15 and OPCUG clocks are $20. Reuse, recycle: Bring your old computer books, software, hardware, and paraphernalia you want to GIVE AWAY to the general meetings, and leave them at the table near the auditorium's entrance. Please limit your magazines to publication dates of less than two years old. If you don't bring something, you may want to TAKE AWAY something of interest, so look in on this area. Please note: If you bring anything for the recycle table, you are responsible to check on your way out and if the items you brought are still there, you must take them home with you.